The straw, borne directly from the land, is relatively cheap. The cost, delivered to the mill, even during the war was only about £4 10s.—$22.50—per ton. This figure is likely to fall. It produces an excellent paper, but it is essential that it should be chopped very finely preparatory to treatment, after which it is boiled with chemicals and finally bleached. The yield efficiency being 33·3 per cent. it follows that three tons of straw are required to produce one ton of paper.
But the straw is not only required for the production of paper; it is equally necessary for the manufacture of strawboard. Under war conditions an appreciable quantity of the reclaimed paper was being repulped to furnish cardboard and paper-board for packing purposes to make good the shortage prevailing in regard to the Dutch product. But the waste-paper is more useful for paper-making. Accordingly it is being switched over to this duty. It was merely utilized otherwise during the war because it was so urgently required, the national consumption running into approximately 100,000 tons annually. Efforts are being made to establish the strawboard industry in these islands. The Dutch method has been adopted, and there are hopes that the output will be speedily raised to 50,000 tons a year. While this falls far short of the actual imports it represents a bold commencement to emancipate us from the necessity to pay tribute to the foreigner to the extent of nearly £1,000,000—$5,000,000—per year for an article which we might just as well produce at home.
Why do we not undertake the manufacture of wood-pulp in this country? This is an obvious question. But so far as these islands are concerned the absence of supplies of raw material in the form of forests has been responsible for the British abandonment of this range of activity. Anterior to the outbreak of war there were three mills in this country possessing integral facilities for pulping wood by the sulphite process, but it was unremunerative owing to the insufficient supplies of suitable indigenous timber. Two mills permitted their sulphite plant to fall into disuse and in course of time dismantled them. The third mill maintained operations, though under difficulties, while its contribution was small in comparison with that of Scandinavia, its capacity being only 6,000 tons a year.
The enormous accumulations of wood-slats arising from the exploitation of our forests to meet military requirements turned native thought towards the resuscitation of the chemical system of pulping. A scheme was promulgated for the erection of a plant in Scotland to work upon the sulphate process, the proposed site for the plant happening to be in close proximity to one of the largest ephemeral logging camps. By the sulphate system the wood is reduced to a pulp by boiling in a solution of caustic soda, and for this reason is often known as soda pulp to distinguish it from the sulphite pulp. It requires three tons of wood chips to yield one ton of pulp, which incidentally I may mention is one of the strongest pulps known to the paper-making craft. At the time the problem was discussed this pulp commanded £40—$200—a ton, and so manufacture was considered to offer an alluring prospect for British enterprise. The only defect in this pulp is that it is difficult to bleach, and therefore can be used only sparingly in the production of white paper. It is used principally in the manufacture of strong brown papers, such as “thin kraft,” the brown paper used for fruit and other bags, or for packing-paper where colour is of minor importance.
Henceforth “kraft” will be in heavy demand for quite a new range of activity. This is the production of paper textiles in which British inventiveness has far out-distanced the German achievements in this field. At the moment the British company specializing in these textiles is being called upon to pay £40—$200—per ton for its raw material drawn from Scandinavia, so that any fall in price which was anticipated as a result of the cessation of hostilities, which would be likely to undercut British production, has failed to materialize so far. It may also be mentioned that British enterprise is quite ready to bring over illimitable quantities of soft woods from the forests of Eastern Canada in the log condition, and at a rate which is far cheaper than that which has hitherto prevailed. This is due to a complete revolution which has been wrought in the water movement of lumber, and it will not only enable the requisite material to be acquired at a figure severely competitive, but allow much of the waste lumber in Canada, at present being ignored, to be submitted to commercial service.
But the exploitation of the foregoing materials by no means exhausts our possibilities in this field. There are other substances, of a refuse character, possessing undoubted virtues for paper-making. Among these may be mentioned potato haulm. There is every indication that our output of the potato will record a decided increase owing to the development of industrial science in other fields. Consequently it is only logical to expect increased accumulations of the bine. At the present moment the vegetation in question is regarded more or less as useless. It should be turned back into the ground to assist in feeding the soil, but many farmers are disinclined to follow such a practice for the reason that the bine is apt to foul the plough, and thus delay the ground-breaking task. Its fertilizer content, or rather the phosphoric acid and potash constituents, are generally reclaimed by burning the bine and turning in the ash, but this process is to be deprecated inasmuch as the whole of the valuable nitrogen content is lost.
The haulm, owing to the nature of its fibres, is held to be an excellent material for the production of brown paper where strength is the essential requirement. So a British inventor devised what may be described as a kind of decorticating machine to rend the tough fibre to pieces upon the spot. The machine is simple, free from liability to easy derangement, and ingenious. It is suggested that it should be acquired by the farmer to permit the treatment of this waste as recovered during the lifting season. It is held to make especial appeal to the agriculturist possessing a motor-tractor, the requisite energy being drawn therefrom through belt and pulley. It is estimated that the manufacture of the machine, upon a sufficiently large scale, will enable it to be sold at about £100—$500. The shredded stalk or fibre should be able to command from £4 10s. to £5 10s.—$22.50 to $27.50—per ton at the mill and should appeal to the paper-maker owing to its high yield efficiency, which is in the neighbourhood of 65 per cent. Of course, the suggestion that this waste should be recovered for the production of paper is one that can only be entertained by the large grower, but it is computed that at least 1,000 machines would be necessary to cope with the country’s annual output of this refuse.
Another waste product which has also been subjected to test, and found promising, is the husk from the oat which accrues from milling. The useless offal resulting from grinding this grain is approximately 35 per cent. In its general characteristics the oat-husk closely resembles sawdust, while its preparation for paper-making entails a broadly identical process—passage through a grinding mill to reduce the residue to the desired consistency. Investigations proved the suitability of this husk-pulp as an ingredient for making certain low-grade papers, such as are used by grocers, and for the very cheapest literature. Paper so made is composed of oat-husks, 35 per cent.; waste-paper, 50 per cent.; imported pulp, 15 per cent. But the most gratifying feature of such paper is that it can be made from domestic raw materials—waste—to the extent of 85 per cent.
It is evident, from what I have related, that the paper situation need never occasion us any undue alarm. We have abundant materials available in the form of waste which we might exploit to our material and financial profit. War, with its concomitant evils, has turned the world upside down. What we could not exploit previously to advantage, owing to severely competitive prices, is now rendered feasible. It only remains for us to submit the results of proved experiments to actual commercial practice.